Submarine wreckage found, all 53 dead
BALI: All 53 crew aboard an Indonesian submarine that disappeared last week were killed, the military said on Sunday as it confirmed the vessel had been found in pieces on the seafloor.
Authorities said that they picked up signals early Sunday from a location more than 800 metres deep -- far below what the KRI Nanggala 402’s steel hull was built to withstand.
They had used an underwater submarine rescue vehicle supplied by neighbouring Singapore to get visual confirmation of the stricken vessel.
“It was broken into three pieces,” said Navy Chief of Staff Yudo Margono.
More parts from the doomed submarine were also retrieved, including an anchor and fluorescent orange safety suits for emergencies, authorities said.
Indonesian military head Hadi Tjahjanto on Sunday said, there was no chance of finding any of the crew alive.
“With deep sadness, I can say that all 53 personnel onboard have passed,” he told reporters.
Relatives of First Lieutenant Muhammad Imam Adi, a 29-year-old father of a young son, clung to hope earlier Sunday.
“My wish now is that my son and all the crew can be found,” Adi’s father Edy Sujianto said from his home on Java island.
“My son had wanted to become a soldier since he was a child. That was his dream.” President Joko Widodo described the sailors as Indonesia’s “best patriots.” “All Indonesians convey their deep sadness over this incident, especially to the families of the submarine crew,” he said.
“Submarine hulls are pressurised, but when they’re breached then water would come flooding inside,” said Wisnu Wardhana, a maritime expert at Indonesia’s Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology.
“Can you imagine if water with that kind of pressure hits people?” Retired French vice-admiral Jean-louis Vichot earlier said that a submarine’s hull could collapse “like a folding accordion” if it hits depths way beyond its limits.
Any salvage operation would be risky and difficult, navy chief Margono said.
“We’ll discuss it to make a decision on how to lit the submarine in this condition,” he said Sunday.
“I want to lit it, but how do we bring it up from (these depths)?” Neighbouring Malaysia, as well as the United States, India and Australia, were among the nations helping in the hunt.
Search vessels, reconnaissance aircrat and submarine rescue ships had been deployed to scour a zone of about 34 square kilometres. Agence France-presse